Improvement in harvester-rakes



UNITED STATES PATENT QFFITCE.

JOHN BARNES, or ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT lN HARVESTER-RAKES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 157,672, dated December 15, 1874; applicatlon filed October 22, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BARNES, of Rockford, in the county of Winnebago and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Harvester-Rakes, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates to that class of combined reel and rakes shown in Letters Patent of the United States granted to me, and respectively numbered and dated No. 85,7 23 of January 12, 1869, and No. 114,094 of April 21, 1871.

The subject-matter claimed is hereinafter specified.

The accompanying drawings show so much of the raking apparatus as is necessary to illustrate my invention.

Figure 1 is a plan view; Fig. 2, a view in perspective of the rake-arm detached; Fig. 3, a vertical central section. through the guidepost; and Fig. 4, a detail view of the gearing which controls the rake.

The crown-wheel A, upon which the rake and reel arms are mounted, revolves around a guide-post, B, fixed upon the frame, having its upper end bent eceentrica-lly to the axis of rotation of the crown-wheel. The reelarms 0 are suspended from the upper part of this guide-post by links 0. The rake-arm D is pivoted upon the crown-wheel in such manner that it extends obliquely. backward of a radial line drawn through the crownwheel. A bracket, E, is pivoted upon the rake-arm in such manner as to permit it to oscillate or swing slightly in a horizontal plane upon its pivot e. A link, E, connects the outer end of this bracket with the guidepost. A pitman, F, is pivoted at one end to the bracket, while its other end is swiveled to a crank, f, of a shaft, F, mounted in suitable bearings in the crown-wheel, carrying on its lower end, beneath the crownwheel, a pinion, G, which engages at suitable intervals with the teeth h of a rack fixed upon the frame. The shaft F carries a guide-plate, g, which is made concave to fit the perimeter of the ring or track H, on which the teeth h are fixed, the effect of which is to hold the shaft, and prevent it from turning on its own axis at certain intervals, without, however, interrupting its rotation with the crownwheel.

In Fig. 4 the spur-pinion G is shown as engaged with the rack, and the crank-shaft of course is rotating on its own axis as well as revolving with the crown-wheel. As the pinion G escapes from the fixed rack h, the guide-plate g interlocks with the ring H, and prevents the rotation of the crank-shaft, until its pinion G is about to re-engage with the rack h, when the lug on the guide-plate enters a recess, i, and brings the pinion and rack into gear again.

This is, in fact, the well-known Smith stock movement; and it is obvious that the same movements may be obtained in other wellknown equivalent ways.

The gearing which actuates the crank-shaft F may, if preferred, be arranged above instead of below the crown-wheel.

I have shown myimproved rake as adapted to a one-wheel, rigid-bar machine; but, ohviously, it may be applied to any of the approved harvesters of the present day.

The relative arrangement of my improved mechanism is such that the crank-shaft F is prevented from rotating from the time the rake is elevated, and while it is moving forward over the driving-wheel, and the rake is consequently held up positively; but when the proper time comes for the rake to descend into the standing grain the crank-shaft rotates, allows the rake to drop squarely into the standing grain, holds it positively down upon the platform while the gavel is being swept therefrom, allows the swinging movement of the bracket and link, and assists the rake to rise faster than it otherwise would do by the operation of the guidepost and link alone.

I do not, broadly, claim herein the oblique arrangement of the rake-shaft or the swinging bracket, as they constitute the subjectmatter of separate applications for Letters Patent filed by me simultaneously herewith.

\Vhat I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the rake-post, revolving crown-wheel, the rake-arm pivoted there arm is positively controlled in its rotation,

' on, and linked to the guide-post by a swingsubstantially as hereinbefore set forth.

ing bracket and link, constituting an exten- In testimony whereof I have hereunto subsible connection, the pitman connecting such scribed my name.

swinging bracket with a crank-shaft mounted JOHN BARNES. upon the driving-Wheel, and intermittently Witnesses:

operated by stop-motion gearing, substan- WM. J. PEYTON,

'tially such as described, whereby the mke- B. H. MORSE. 

